Intel boosts class-leading speed with Optane SSD 905P drives

It’s barely been six months since Intel rolled out the Optane SSD 900, high-performance solid-state drives for workstations and performance PC enthusiasts using 3D XPoint memory, and already the company has released the 905P series to improve on its predecessor.

As with the 900 family, the 905P comes in U.2 or HHHL (half-height half-length) expansion card form factors, but doubles the storage capacity to 480GB and 960GB, respectively. The 905P HHHL version also gets a bit of design flair with blue LED lights that will appeal to gamers. The new drives retain the same 5-year warranty the 900 series includes.

Compared to other NVMe-based SSDs, the 3D XPoint drives have already proven to be superior performers, and the 905P builds on that success, upping sequential and random read/write speeds over the 900 models. In fact, Tom’s Hardware has already declared the 905P HHL drive the fastest SSD available — either in the consumer or enterprise space — though the site based that conclusion on just a few preliminary benchmark tests. In particular, the 905P excels at random reads and writes, thanks to firmware upgrades to the drive’s controller.

Other advantages 3D XPoint memory has over NAND are lower latency (under 10 microseconds) and superior endurance (10 full drive writes per day). If you priced the 900 series, you’re aware that cost is not an advantage, as those drives started at over $300. With the increased capacity and performance, the 905P’s starting price jumps to $599 for the 480GB U.2 format drive. For the 960GB half-height version you will definitely be paying a full price — a whopping $1,200, to be exact.